FORMULA 1 : THE PALATIAL MOTORHOMES COULD BE BANNED

The palatial motorhomes used by Formula 1 teams will come under fire as the sport looks to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Formula 1 : The palatial motorhomes could be banned. It’s part of a wider piece of work currently being undertaken by the sport which is also looking at logistics and reducing emissions from the cars themselves.

When announcing its intent to become carbon neutral last November, it was revealed the cars themselves account for less than one percent of the sport’s footprint.

While there are efforts to reduce that, the sport is also looking to employ the use of more sea freight and trains going forward.

“We are looking at transportation and all the equipment that we use,” explained F1’s managing director of motorsport, Ross Brawn.

“So my guys at the moment are looking at all the alternative forms of transport, and train is actually a very efficient way of moving stuff around.

“Sea freight is also a very efficient way of moving things around in terms of the impact it has.

“So we’re looking at all the logistics and see how we can minimise our impact.”

Brawn added that the elaborate motorhomes used by teams at selected European events could also be scrapped.

He reasons they’re unnecessary for teams to work, while adding a significant footprint to the sport.

“We all go to a grand prix and for nine races of the year we have motorhomes carted around by trucks, a large fleet of trucks, that give the teams the facilities they need,” he explained.

“For the other 15 races, they are quite happy to use whatever’s there when they turn up on Thursday.

“We go to overseas races, for example we go to Baku, and you have a nice set of prefabs all laid out for you. Nobody complains, and it is all workable.

“Then we go to Monza and we have our gin palaces with all the trucks that are needed to transport them.

“So in the future, we want to move to a motorhome or hospitality facility which could be put up with far less impact in terms of logistics and transportation than we have now.”

The 2020 F1 season is set to ramp up this week with a number of teams to launch their cars ahead of pre-season testing beginning next week.

Melbourne then hosts the opening round of the championship on March 12-15.